Wishing Out Loud
by Shonashee
Summary: "Remember the love muffins? Well, apparently, it isn't enough to just be kissed. You already have to be physically attracted to the person before you can be 'in love' with them." / / Charlotte confronts Henry. Chenry friendship with a large serving of Hensper.


**A/N: Hey guys. Here's something new - a Hensper fic. I wrote it a while ago, immediately after Love Muffin aired, but I didn't really like how it turned out. There was supposed to be another chapter where Henry and Jasper actually talked about what happens in this part, but I started soon _Elevated Over Me_ soon after so I never finished this. That's why I didn't post.**

 **I got a message on Tumblr, though, asking me to post it, so here it is. So you can all thank tundura for this. Sorry that it's so short and if it's not exactly what you were expecting.**

 **Disclaimer~ I don't own Henry Danger.**

* * *

"You know," Charlotte said when she came out, pulling on a sweater against the October breeze. "Next time, you should pick up Jasper."

Henry had been leaning against the railing on her porch and looking down at his phone. He looked up at her words, clearly confused. "What?"

"Well, he's part of this, too, now," Charlotte replied, pursing her lips. "So he gets what I get as an official secret-keeper. You guys should pick each other up, like we do on our way to work."

He tilted his head slightly. "I guess."

"I mean, his house is even on the way." Charlotte continued as she led him out of her front yard to the road. "You go out of the way to pick _me_ up. It might just be easier to pick him up and meet me there."

Henry looks down at her, his brow furrowed. He brings his hand up to her shoulder, stopping her on the path. She turns around to face him.

"Hey, why are you suddenly trying to distance yourself?" he says. "Just because Jasper's on the team doesn't mean you're out. I still need you. We still want you."

On any other day, it would be kind of sweet how Henry's using his head and being perceptive and how he lets her know she's important to him and the team. But that's not it. She looked up at him as if he's missing something huge. As if there was something he should have gotten.

Charlotte's been staring at him like that for a while now.

He clears his throat. "Did you do something with your hair?"

She shrugged his hand off her shoulder and kept walking, eyes dead ahead. He speeds up until he's walking right next to her, and as he did, he stared at her face so he could see something, _anything,_ that could give away what she was thinking.

"Schwoz showed me something really interesting last night."

"Did he now?" Henry said as conversationally as possible. He mentally makes a note to murder Schwoz if he said anything that's causing Charlotte to act so weird. No one hurts his best friend and gets away with it.

"Remember the love muffins?" Charlotte chewed on her lip, and his eyes followed the motion. She only did that when she was scared about saying something. She hated not feeling in control of her own words. "Well, apparently, it isn't enough to just be kissed. You already have to be physically attracted to the person before you can be 'in love' with them."

For a second his heart stops.

 _She knows_.

Outwardly, he only swallows. "Oh."

She'll understand. She has always been his best friend, and he can trust her with this, just like how he trusted her with his first secret two years ago. Besides, she had told him a while ago how she never looked at anyone the way she thought most people did when they talked about attraction. Of all their friends, she would be the last person to turn him away.

"You see, the chemicals released by the muffin react with the ones naturally produced by your brain when you're attracted to someone. Hormones and all that." Her voice is shaking now as she keeps rambling about the new device Schwoz invented and how it had been her idea to test the chemical makeup of the muffins.

"Guess it wouldn't work on you, huh?" Henry tries to laugh. He spins around, catching her by the shoulders, and she's startled out of her nervous musing. "It's okay, Char. Yes, I'm...I'm bi. I like dudes as much as girls...well sometimes I like girls more, but I still like dudes."

It's the first time he's said it to anyone but his mirror, and to be honest, it's a little less eloquent than he imagined it would be. Not to mention, he was expecting for a bigger reaction. But instead, Charlotte simply looks up at him, her forehead scrunched in confusion, before she slowly lifts up one eyebrow as if to indicate how unimpressed she is.

"Uh, yeah," Charlotte shrugs his hands off her. "I knew that."

"Oh, okay." Henry's a little disappointed. But he should have known. Charlotte's always been smart, practical. She probably figured it out before he did, and even with that knowledge, she doesn't care. It doesn't change anything. That's enough to make him breathe a little easier.

He turns around, looking down the street. Junk 'n Stuff is a block and a half away, and he can make out the potted plants at the door. Charlotte tugs at a curl of her hair and plays with the hem of her denim jacket, still watching him.

Not that he can see her with his back to her like this. He just knows her well enough to realize she's worrying that one strand that had been hanging loose from her bun, and that she's probably tugging and twisting the loose string at her waist.

"So, what were you trying to say?" Henry closes his eyes, and he feels a drop of water fall on his face. It's sunny, most of the sky is a bright blue. There aren't that many clouds. He wondered where the drop came from. He discretely wipes his face and turns back to her. "Stop playing around and just say it."

"I'm not playing around." She sounds frustrated, but she walks closer, stopping only when they're right next to him. "You like Jasper, don't you?"

So this was it. She put it together.

He raises an eyebrow. Maybe he can still get out of this. "Physical attraction doesn't equal romantic attraction, and you of all people should know that."

She glares at him. "Of course I know."

"Then what?"

"You're attracted to Jasper, yeah." Charlotte looks annoyed for a second. "But you care about him, in a deeper way. You're always defending him and doing whatever you can to help him. We both are, but it's different how you do it. You - you nearly gave up your job for him, okay? And when I first found out, you found the idea of brain-wiping me entertaining." She scoffs lightly, offering him a gentle smile to tell him she isn't truly offended,

But Henry still tries to pull a boyish smirk on his face. "What, you jealous? We were younger, and frankly, I was stupid, Char. I was just surprised that brain-wiping was a thing. But I'd do the same thing for you."

"Stop trying to change the subject," she snaps at him. There's a shift, and he realizes there's no turning back now.

"Yes, ma'am." He looks down, clenching his fists at his side.

"Look at me," she says more gently than he had expected.

He lifts his head the slightest bit, looking at her through his hair. She didn't expect the tears in his eyes.

"You _do_ like him," she says, a part of her smug at the realization that she's right. He expected that, though, and he almost laughs at the way she's smirking.

"I love him."

Her eyes soften, and she opens up her arms. He reaches for her, burying his face in her shoulder. He wishes he had Jasper memorized like her does her. He wishes he knew all of Jasper's ticks and habits, that they could walk to work together. He wishes he had been this close to Jasper for over a year.

There might be an alternate timeline somewhere out there where he had never become Kid Danger and instead worked in a supermarket or deli or something equally boring. Jasper would always came and hung out near the candy section and never cease to distract him. They'd go to lunch together on his breaks and when he finally told Jasper he loved him, Jasper would smile and say he knew. There would never have been a question of rejection because they'd know each other in and out, because beyond being his oldest friend Jasper would still be his best friend. In that timeline, Jasper wouldn't have turned him away even if he didn't feel the same.

But in this timeline, the time for confessions without fear of drifting apart had never even come about. Because right now, the time when they had been close seems so far in the past. The boys in the picture on top of his dresser are a lifetime ago.

"Well, you got the future, Hen." Charlotte strokes his back, and he realizes he had been wishing out loud. "Make the most of it."

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, it's probably going to stay like this. I might write a second chapter one day where Henry begins picking Jasper up on their way to work and they start to get close again and stuff happens (*wink*), but this is all I have now. Just know that that's probably where this story would have gone next. I just feel like there was definitely a strain in the friendship when Henry and Charlotte started running off and leaving Jasper behind, which here affects Henry's ability to be open with Jasper about how he feels for him.**

 **I feel the need to justify that Henry isn't afraid of Jasper rejecting him, just afraid of him and Jasper drifting apart. Jasper would never intentionally reject Henry just because of his feelings. But Henry's afraid of the awkwardness that might develop, just because he's already kind of distant from Jasper. Hope that came through in the reading of this.**

 **Also, yeah, I imagine Charlotte being a ace (but not aro), Henry being bi, and Jasper being pan.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading. Please favorite and review. :)**


End file.
